Anne McElvoy: Tory money men tell Dave to get a grip (and ditch his Eton chums)

Anne McElvoy: Tory money men tell Dave to get a grip (and ditch his Eton chums)

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UPDATED:

02:01 GMT, 30 December 2012

Prime Minister David Cameron

Even as they trumpet the works of wonder planned for the year ahead, our political leaders reflect their insecurities and shortcomings. David Cameron has lurched from declaring his support for gay marriage to an evangelical Christian message in the hope of placating religious opponents of his plans.

It is not the first time the Tory leader has indulged in a cocktail of opportunism and attention-seeking, like a student joining every society at Freshers’ Week in the hope that one of the causes will enhance his CV.

This trait has been the topic uniting wealthy donors and back-room boys plotting over decent vintages during the holidays. The challenge, as one of Dave’s oldest political allies puts it, ‘is to re-establish him as a man of broadly based, reliable leadership’. Note the assumption that he has carelessly shed that mantle.

Besides political imperatives, financial ones loom large. Funding the next General Election campaign has been on the minds of all the party leaders as they solicit goodwill and funds.

I gather that a number of senior Conservative donors, on whom the party will rely to finance a tough campaign, have told Mr Cameron that they wish to see the No 10 team in stronger shape by 2015.

In their sights is the Prime Minister’s urbane chief of staff Ed Llewellyn, who has been accused of lacking managerial grip and who may well feel the heat if Andrew Mitchell proves that his account of ‘Plebgate’ was not taken seriously enough by Cameron’s aides (Mr Mitchell is not without City allies).

Even publicly supportive Michael Spencer, who has dined at the Camerons’ flat, has held a series of rather more luxurious lunches soliciting opinions about the Coalition’s competence and how to improve it.

The problem for Mr Cameron, one aide whispers, is that mighty donors have wildly different views about what to do.

Many privately sympathise with Stuart Wheeler, a well-connected renegade donor who now funds UKIP, and want Mr Cameron to launch a Eurosceptic crusade when Parliament returns.

Others bemoan what they see as an overly chummy atmosphere in No 10. ‘You just have to open a cupboard and another old Etonian falls out,’ snipes one Downing Street insider.

However, Mr Cameron is resisting pressure to downgrade his old school friend Mr Llewellyn. He insists that the addition of a deputy chief of staff, Oliver Dowden, who specialises in ‘crisis management’, will create a more responsive team.

Ed Miliband also has money matters on his mind. He needs to attract the kind of wealthy support among the Left that would signal he is not in the pocket of the unions, his main backers in the leadership battle against his brother David in 2010.

Opposition leader Ed Milliband also has money matters on his mind

An increasingly important player on this score is Andrew Rosenfeld, the single biggest private donor to Labour.

The perma-tanned property tycoon, who is masterminding the party’s ‘Game Plan’ project to teach activists how to target resources effectively, is said to aspire to matching Lord Ashcroft’s sway in Conservative circles.

Yet many wealthy Labour supporters are worried that Milibandism remains such a frustratingly vague creed.

Ed’s recent statement that he would also have instituted budget cuts – just not of the kind that are onerous or unpleasant to anyone – fails to convince them. One former donor has signalled he won’t shell out for the next Election or its whizz-bang technology unless this is resolved.

Pressure is thus growing on Mr Miliband to instigate a ‘peace treaty’ with Ed Balls and offer a more realistic account of Labour’s economic plans.

All of this is pressing because 2013 is the year in which both parties need to re-establish sturdy war chests for the territorial battles beyond.

As little as Cameron and Miliband want to talk about it, the hour of the money men is at hand.

Lib DEM MP Jo Swinson objects to magazine features on how we can look like Cate Blanchett within weeks when a diet of Baileys and violet creams has left us feeling more like Dawn French.

Earnest Ms Swinson, left, counsels that women who obsess needlessly about their weight should be reassured rather than simply told to eat cabbage soup.

‘There’s a resolution there for everyone to challenge that default setting,’ says Jo, in a tone pitched gratingly between head girl and fashionable vicar.

We might take these thoughts more seriously were she to renounce political fads before condemning journalistic ones. Let’s start with the tendency of the Westminster classes to preach about what should interest people, while having little clue about how to rivet the public’s attention themselves.

Lord Sugar, the force of nature formerly known as ‘Suralan’, has shown that the nation favours practical, demanding apprenticeships, even while its young are funnelled into higher education courses of dubious merit.

Now Matthew Hancock, an energetic young blood in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, has proposed that professional qualifications such as law for solicitors, accountancy and insurance might be gained without the palaver of a degree course.

The Conservative MP for West Suffolk is on to something. Many parents and students hanker after professional skills without wanting a university education.

If he can turn this pledge into something less fleeting than most ministerial pronouncements about enhancing the skills.

Lord Sugar

Lord Sugar, the force of nature formerly known as ‘Suralan’, has shown that the nation favours practical, demanding apprenticeships, even while its young are funnelled into higher education courses of dubious merit.

Now Matthew Hancock, an energetic young blood in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, has proposed that professional qualifications such as law for solicitors, accountancy and insurance might be gained without the palaver of a degree course.

The Conservative MP for West Suffolk is on to something. Many parents and students hanker after professional skills without wanting a university education.

If he can turn this pledge into something less fleeting than most ministerial pronouncements about enhancing the skills base, even Lord Sugar shouldn’t fire him.

Quotes of the Year

‘I believe in some form of afterlife. I just hope my uncle George isn’t there – silly, bald-headed old coot.’Sir Patrick Moore considers in January what awaits him in Heaven. The astronomer died earlier this month.

‘They say 40 is the new 30. Try telling that to a speed camera.’George Valentine, of Rotherham, in a letter to the Daily Mail in March.

‘You can learn a lot about your kids by simply turning off the TV and talking. I discovered that mine are really boring.’Comedy writer Danny Zuker reveals the reality behind his cult sitcom Modern Family in March.

‘Did we lose’ Bolton footballer Fabrice Muamba regain consciousness days after his cardiac arrest in a game against Spurs in March.

‘I’m in the queue at Waitrose.’ Smartly dressed woman on her mobile phone in Aldi, as recounted by Peter Mansion of Gloucestershire writing to The Daily Telegraph in April.

Frankie Boyle

‘A couple of weeks ago I knew nothing about the Olympics. Now I can’t wait for next year’s.’Comedian Frankie Boyle has an ironic take on a summer of sport in August.

Ten-year-old ‘Pearle’ addresses David Walliams in a refreshingly frank fan letter in May.

‘The great train snobbery.’

Political insiders’ coinage after George Osborne is caught without a first-class ticket and an aide says he ‘couldn’t possibly’ sit in standard in October.

‘If you look like a sack of offal that’s been drop-kicked down a lift shaft into a pond, you’re going to spend many of your formative years alone.’Self-deprecating TV star Miranda Hartremembers her teenage years in September.